Getting close to the rubies still means risking your life
Exactly ten years ago, in 2015, ZAM published the investigation The Ruby Plunder Wars of Montepuez. It revealed that in Montepuez, Mozambique — home to the world’s richest ruby deposit — a “local general pockets proceeds while artisanal miners get shot by Special Forces.” The report was met with vehement denials of responsibility by the majority mine owner, UK gemstone giant Gemfields, and with stony silence from its Mozambican partner Mwiriti, owned by ruling party Frelimo VIP, General Raimundo Pachinuapa.
Over the years, I have continued to visit Montepuez, each time concluding, with deep regret, that local artisanal miners are still barred from earning a living from the “wealth beneath their feet” — and are shot at when they try. Recently, killings have surged again, with four deaths and two injuries reported this year alone.
Between Paris and Nanuni Forest
The Montepuez-based ruby mine, MRM, supplies approximately 50% of the global ruby market. It is 75% owned by Gemfields and 25% by the local partner Mwiriti, which is in turn 60% owned by General Raimundo Domingos Pachinuapa, described on Gemfields’ website as “a PEP, or politically exposed person”.
In October 2025, MRM Gemfields once again participated in the World Jewellery Confederation’s annual conference, held this year in Paris, France. In addition to hosting a gala dinner, the world’s jewellery giants discussed various aspects of gemstone mining, including a workshop titled “Focus on Africa.” At the same time, back in Montepuez, villagers were recounting the killings. “We lost our brother,” says Ossufo Ibraim Taibo, who witnessed his brother Mossito’s death last month. “On that day in September, we went with a group of about 14 into the Nanuni forest to mine near the Nanuni do Branco (MRM) area. All those present were members of an artisanal mining association we had formed to gain access to the area and go to work (1). It was around 6 PM. Then the military arrived, accompanied by police officers and nacatanas, MRM’s locally recruited security men, nicknamed nacatanas, which means ‘machetes.’”
First, the police extorted fines, then they started shooting
According to Taibo, “First, they extorted what they called ‘fines,’ collecting fifty thousand meticais (about US$750) from all of us together. Then they began shooting at people. They shot my brother and another man, but the other man did not die. Only my brother, Mossito Cardoso, lost his life. The mine police took his body to the hospital mortuary in a police car, accompanied by some cars belonging to the supervisors. As a family, we took the body to our hometown, Nampula, 300 kilometres to the south, where we buried him. Mossito was 35 years old, leaving behind two sons, aged 14 and 16, and two widows.” The death certificate, Taibo says, includes a report noting that “another was also shot and seriously injured,” but he “managed to escape to the village.”
Although they assisted with the transport of Cardoso’s body and drew up the report, the local police did not pursue the case further, Marcelino says.
Deaths and Injuries in Montepuez during 2024 and 2025
- Alexandre Mussa, shot and killed, 5–6 April 2025
- Bernardo Augusto, pushed into a pit and died, 23 May 2025
- Mossito Cardoso, shot and killed, September 2025
- Joao Antonio, shot and killed, 6 October 2025
- Tony Marcelino, shot in the foot, 8 April 2025
- Broane Saide, shot in the arm, 18 May 2025
- Three deaths in an “incident involving artisanal miners,” 28 November 2024
- Lino Amade Rasa, shot in the arm and buttocks, 25 September 2025
Asked to respond to accusations of homicide and assault by specialised police units on MRM Gemfields territory, Cabo Delgado Provincial Police spokesperson Eugenia Nhamissua said that “security around the MRM concession is handled by MRM’s internal structures,” adding that “they [MRM] have their own organisation, with a representative from the Ministry of the Interior,” and that ZAM should “interact directly with those responsible for security in Montepuez Gemfields/MRM.”
A sizeable taxpayer
This was disputed by MRM Gemfields, which stated in a comment that, “MRM protection services personnel are unarmed, do not have the power of arrest, and are subordinate to the PRM (Police of the Republic of Mozambique). The PRM and the military operate under an independent command structure from MRM, reporting to senior offices in Pemba and Maputo. It is clear that numerous members of the local authorities are connected with the illegal mining trade, and disagreements between these parties are frequent and violent.” In this part of the comment, the company may have been referring to a recent incident reported on its website, in which a group of 40 artisanal miners confronted Mozambican police officers at one of its gates, killing two. According to the Gemfields report, this confrontation followed the reported killing of a resident by authorities in one of the nearby villages.
Gemfields also stated that “in recent weeks (it had) collected considerable evidence of cash being paid by illegal miners to members of the police force (PRM) in exchange for access to the concession, for removing material from the concession, and for passing PRM checkpoints. This information is provided by MRM to authorities in higher offices, but despite MRM’s sizable contribution as a major taxpayer in the province, progress on these issues remains unresolved.”
MRM Gemfields added that most cases of violence against artisanal miners, except that of Tony Marcelino, “which was reported to the press and authorities”, were “unknown” to the company, and that it “would naturally be very interested in receiving more information about the incidents (…) and would investigate them accordingly, followed by reporting all credible incidents in accordance with our usual practice (to the authorities and via the press). In addition, we routinely recommend that all stakeholders and affected parties report wrongdoing to the relevant authorities.”
The police spokesman stopped responding
Mozambican police spokesman Leonel Muchina said, in response to questions, that he had not heard of any cases of murder or assault in Montepuez, and that the police could investigate such incidents if “evidence (…) is presented to the police and other institutions with a stake in the management and administration of justice for verification. (Then we can) even form investigation teams to understand what is happening.” When I explained to Muchina that several villagers had told me they were afraid to go to the police station for fear of arrest, and that even when they managed to report a case of violence, they rarely received a response, he stopped responding.
The Ministry of Defence in Mozambique did not respond to a letter requesting comment on killings allegedly carried out by the military.
No alternative livelihood
The artisanal miners, or “illegals,” as the “rightful” concession owners call them, continue to try to enter the ruby concession. Jobs and alternative livelihoods promised by the provincial government and the mining company at the start of the mining project in 2011 have still not materialised in the area. One-off damage payments made to locals by Gemfields after a class-action suit by London-based law firm Leigh Day in 2019 — compensation given without admission of guilt — have done little to replace families’ employment prospects, health care, schooling, or other essential needs.
Meanwhile, jobs at the mine for residents remain scarce; a petition by 330 self-declared ex-employees (2) has so far failed to secure anyone’s reinstatement; and corporate social responsibility initiatives, such as a school and an ambulance, cannot structurally substitute for public services. In another story for ZAM, I reported on the provincial authorities’ failure to channel tax revenues and CSR contributions from the mine towards local needs.
Civil unrest destroyed projects
In response to the question of why the situation has not improved for locals despite Gemfields’ stated commitment to “sustainable” and “responsible” sourcing, and why locals were not permitted to mine rubies in a section of the area where they live, the London-based mining company said that “artisanal mining for rubies in Cabo Delgado was fundamentally unsafe” and that illegal mining was “run by criminal syndicates” and therefore “detrimental” to the “social fabric of the villages.”
It added that the company “liaises with village chiefs to identify suitable alternatives to illegal mining, and support developments, for example the provision of jobs, agricultural cooperatives, [and] vocational training,” but that “sadly, several of these projects were looted and destroyed in the country-wide civil unrest surrounding the contested election in December 2024.” Ironically, the protests in which, according to Gemfields, these projects were “looted and destroyed” were aimed at the misgovernance of the same ruling party of which Gemfields’ local partner, General Raimundo Pachinuapa, is a high-ranking member.
According to its website, Gemfields, “together with MRM, aims to lead a sector that has historically been unregulated and largely illicit by demonstrating the benefits of a more systematic, modern, and transparent approach to coloured gemstone mining, so that the industry becomes more responsible and legitimate, delivering sustainable long-term social, economic, and environmental benefits to both the country and local communities.”
- In 2023, the provincial government allocated an area in Montepuez to artisanal mining associations. A project was launched in consultation with the mining companies operating in the region, facilitated by a locally connected political consultant. The initiative ultimately failed amid complaints from the associations that they had been “cheated” out of their shares by both the consultant and the companies.
- Gemfields confirms in its comment that “a group of 330 individuals, claiming to be ex-employees of MRM, allege that they were unlawfully dismissed and are seeking compensation,” but notes that “only 115 of the 330 claimants were found to be bona fide ex-employees of MRM” and that “Mozambican labour law was followed in the termination of the contracts.”
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